For the past 15 years, America has been ranked as the world’s most competitive economy according to the Swiss-based IMD World Competitiveness Center. In the 2010 report that was recently released, the United States fell to number three, trailing Hong Kong and Singapore. Obama deserves much of the blame, but a nation rarely become less […]

I may as well confess that I have a man-crush on Governor Christie. It’s not nearly as bad as Andrew Sullivan’s fixation on Obama (and it certainly hasn’t involved me changing my views), but this video and the excerpt below are two examples of a politician actually doing the right thing and giving intelligent and […]

A Washington Post columnist is understandably disgusted that Congressman Jim Moran is a corrupt thief who swaps earmarks for campaign cash, but she draws the wrong conclusion. The problem is not campaign contributions. That’s just the symptom. The real problem is that government is far too big, and politicians are auctioning off undeserved money to […]

You might think I would be past the point of being surprised about excessive pay for bureaucrats, especially after narrating the new video for the Center for Freedom and Prosperity, but even I’m shocked by this New York Times story about bloated pay for bureaucrats at New York City’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority. More than 8,000 […]

As I noted in this TV interview, that last thing a parasite should want is to kill its host animal. This is why leftists are making a big mistake by over-taxing, over-spending, and over-regulating. Simply stated, if they want to live as moochers, they need to make sure someone is producing. In other words, don’t […]

Having played sports all my life and having been involved in sporting events with my kids, I’m a big believer in practicing and teaching sportsmanship. Simply stated, you ease up on a team once you have a big lead. But sportsmanship, like other virtues, is not something that should be imposed – especially when the […]

Bigger government hurts growth by diverting resources from productive uses to political purposes. That’s common sense to most people. But it’s nice to find even academics at Harvard are confirming this relationship. Excerpted below is the abstract of a new study from the Harvard Business School, and kudos to Veronique de Rugy, who alerted me […]

The Secretary of the Treasury is a comedian as well as a tax cheat. At least that’s the only rational interpretation of his recent statements in Europe, where he used the do-as-I-say-not-as-I-do routine while pretending to tell the Europeans to be fiscally responsible. The Wall Street Journal, in keeping with the deadpan style of the […]

Apologies to Star Wars fans for the title, but it seemed very fitting considering the profound amoral mentality of the lobbyists who have launched a public relations campaign to defend earmarks. The key part of the story is excerpted below for your reading pleasure, but let’s focus on the “best” defense of earmarking. I’ve talked to some Republican politicians who argue […]